ev

o Memorandum

U.S. Department
of Transportation

Federal Railroad
Administration
Date: August 20, 2021

Subject: Technical Bulletin MP&E 21-02, Failure to Comply with Blue Signal Protections:
Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations Section 218.22.

From: Mr. Charles King La Z ——
Director, Office of Rattréad Infrastructure an Ghanical Equipment

To: All Safety Management Teams, Specialists, State Program Managers, and all
Federal and State MP&E Inspectors

The purpose of this Technical Bulletin (TB) is to advise Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
and participating State MP&E inspectors regarding the scope of functions a member of a train or
yard crew, or a utility employee properly attached to a train or yard crew, may perform without
establishing blue signal protection (BSP). This TB also reinforces the requirement that any
assigned utility employees must meet all the conditions provided in § 218.22 to perform tasks
without BSP.

Background: Recent shifts in the railroad industry have resulted in the reassignment of tasks,
traditionally performed by railroad car inspectors, to train or yard crews or utility employees
without either the protection of an attached locomotive or BSP. In addition, recent incidents
involving utility employees, including an amputation and fatality, have raised safety concerns
about continued industry changes and the proper interpretation of what both train or yard crews,
and utility employees attached to those crews, are permitted to do without BSP. These incidents
also highlight the importance of compliance with all requirements of the utility employee
regulation.

Title 49 CFR Part 218 delineates which railroad employees may be excluded from BSP as utility
employees (§ 218.22) and defines “train or yard crew” (§ 218.5). In § 218.22(g), FRA states that
any railroad employee not assigned to a train or yard crew or authorized to work with a crew as a
utility employee, is a worker required to have BSP. The definition of “train or yard crew”
provides in part that train or yard crews must be “involved with the train or yard movement of
railroad rolling equipment they are to work with as an operating crew; reporting and working


together as a unit that remains in close contact.”

Utility employees are excluded from BSP only when assigned to and functioning as temporary
members of a specific train or yard crew under all the conditions set forth in § 218.22, which are
essential to the employees’ safety. These conditions include measures to properly attach to a
train or yard crew and establish and maintain clear communications in such a manner that each
member of the train or yard crew understands the duties to be performed and whether those
duties will cause any crewmember to go on, under, or between the rolling equipment. Further, §
218.22(c)(5) limits the tasks that an assigned utility employee may perform without BSP. In all
other circumstances, utility employees working on, under, or between railroad rolling equipment
must be provided with BSP.

Guidance: FRA has recently found that railroads have occasionally utilized train or yard
crewmembers or utility employees, rather than car inspectors, to complete tasks traditionally
performed under BSP, under the mistaken impression that the exclusion from BSP for train or
yard crews extends to all work assigned to these employees.

In addition, FRA has become aware that railroads have directed train or yard crews, and assigned
utility employees, to perform work on equipment not part of the train to which such
crewmembers or utility employees were assigned. FRA reaffirms its position, as codified in §
218.22, that the BSP exclusions apply only to tasks involving equipment that is part of the train
to which a crewmember or utility employee is assigned. Safety can be assured only by providing
protection against unexpected movement of equipment equivalent to a crewmember occupying
the cab of an attached locomotive. FRA believes that crews need to have complete control over
the equipment that is part of the train on which they are working. Accordingly, a yard airbrake
test performed without a locomotive on equipment not part of the train to which train or yard
crewmembers or utility employees are assigned, for example, can only be performed under BSP.

If there are any questions or concerns regarding this TB, please contact Mr. John D. Brahaney,
Railroad Safety Specialist (SME), FRA Motive Power & Equipment Division, at (202) 805.5359
or john. brahaney@dot.gov.